Siemens to invest EUR150 million to expand wind power business

Erlangen, Germany, Over the next two years Siemens is to invest over EUR150 million in further expansion of its wind business. Two new Research and Development (R&D) Centers are to be set up in the Danish towns of Brande and Aalborg. In addition, Siemens will match the capacity of its Danish production plants to the growing demand for offshore wind turbines in Europe expand office spaces at its headquarters in Brande to accommodate the growth in number of employees. Starting 2012, the highly successful Offshore Business will have a new Center of Competence in the Danish city of Vejle.

In 2010, Siemens opened two new production facilities in China and in the U.S. The Business Unit Siemens Wind Power already operates centers of competence around the world in order to enhance the research and development activities in this field. They are located in Taastrup, Denmark, Boulder, USA, Sheffield and Keele, United Kingdom, Aachen, Germany and The Hague, The Netherlands. “Our investments in R&D and the extension of production facilities will pave the road for our global expansion,” said Jens-Peter Saul, CEO of the Siemens Wind Power Business Unit. “We will continue to expand our global production network and to regionalize our sales and project management functions to get closer to the customer. Further factories are planned in the U.K., in Canada, Russia and India,” added Saul.

“The investments in our new R&D Centers will strengthen our leading position in wind turbine technology,” said Henrik Stiesdal, Chief Technology Officer of the Siemens Wind Power Business Unit. “Through the investment in the new R&D test centers, we will be able to thoroughly investigate and verify new products and solutions like the Direct Drive and Quantum Blade technologies before they are implemented in the field. This will help us to ensure that we keep our unmatched track record in reliability for our next generation of large wind turbines.”

The new blade Quantum Blade is lighter than previous models but retains the superior strength of earlier generations. It features a redesigned tip and root section. The blade tip has also been redesigned to minimize loads.

Wind power is part of Siemens’ Environmental Portfolio. In fiscal 2010, revenue from the Portfolio totaled about EUR28 billion, making Siemens the world’s largest supplier of ecofriendly technologies. In the same period, our products and solutions enabled customers to reduce their carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions by 270 million tons, an amount equal to the total annual CO2 emissions of the megacities Hong Kong, London, New York, Tokyo, Delhi and Singapore.

The Siemens Energy Sector is the world’s leading supplier of a complete spectrum of products, services and solutions for the generation, transmission and distribution of power and for the extraction, conversion and transport of oil and gas. In fiscal 2010 (ended September 30), the Energy Sector had revenues of approximately EUR25.5 billion and received new orders totaling more than EUR30.1 billion and posted a profit of more than EUR3.3 billion. On September 30, 2010, the Energy Sector had a work force of more than 88,000. Further information is available at: http://www.siemens.com/energy